May 2017 // Archive

Fat Loss supplements are a million-dollar business, however this can be seen as preying on the vulnerable and possible desperation to lose weight.

It can be extremely tempting to jump onto the bandwagon with any media reports suggesting certain fat loss supplements help with results.

However, from our background in sports science we have access to multiple research reports to allow us to make informed decisions.

Here’s a list of the fat loss supplements that we’ve seen people buying in abundance and what the research suggests.

This is not our views but the reports from the scientific research.

Glutamine

Glutamine is one of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids in dietary protein. specifically it is a conditionally essential amino acid (being elevated to essential during periods of disease and muscle wasting typical of physical trauma). It is sold as an isolated amino acids, but is already found in high levels in dietary meats and eggs. It is also found in very high levels in both whey and casein protein.

Glutamine is a very effective intestinal and immune system health compound, as these cells use glutamine as the preferred fuel source rather than glucose.

It is generally touted as a muscle builder, but has not been proven to enhance muscle building in healthy individuals; only those suffering from physical trauma such as burns or muscular wounds (knife wounds) or in disease states in which muscle wasting occurs, such as AIDS. In these individuals, however, glutamine is effective at building muscle and alleviating a decrease in muscle mass typical of the ailment.

Glutamine also seems to make news in fat loss media. Yet research has shown zero link between glutamine and fat loss. If glutamine had an effect on muscle building it could help increase metabolism. However, this would not surpass diet and exercise as the biggest reasons for adding muscle to increase metabolism.

Having amino acids in single form (they’re the building blocks of protein – of which there are 20), often means that nutrients are missed or may not be fully utilised in the body. It would be strongly advised to continue with wholesome meats and fish, and wherever needed in protein powders.

T3

T3 is one of the two circulating Thyroid Hormones and is the more metabolically active one (relative to T4). Used as therapy for hypothyroidics, T3 may hold some promise as being a short-term fat burner and cognitive enhancer vicariously through the effects of thyroid hormones. T3 increased the thyroid activity and therefore may improve metabolism for short term weight loss.

Caution should be taken as overdosing through T3 and/or T4 can lead to symptoms of hyperthyroidism, which range far wider than just an increased metabolic rate.

Caution should be taken to avoid overdosing in both dosage and duration.

A much safe and cheaper option would be diet, exercise and even the use of caffeine as a metabolic enhancer.

Raspberry Ketones

Raspberry ketone is the compound responsible for many flavouring and aromatic qualities of cosmetics and processed foods.

When present in high doses, raspberry ketone can exert fat burning effects on various areas of the fat cell. These effects may be similar to those of ephedrine and synephrine.

It should be noted that all evidence for the effects of raspberry ketone has only been observed in vitro (in a test tube). Though researchers are able to raise the concentrations of ketones in a single cell during studies, these same high dose concentrations cannot be replicated in the human body, particularly through oral supplementation.

Therefore research support for raspberry ketones is severly lacking in human trials. Therefore, it is impossible to say that they will have a benefit due to the concentrations used in test tube labs compared to those that could be ingested.

CLA

It is claimed that CLA reduces appetite and therefore leads to improved weight loss.

However, human studies on CLA are very unreliable and the overall effects seen with CLA are not overly potent as well as sometimes contradicting. CLA’s usage as a supplement for personal goals is quite lacklustre.

CLA is considered ineffective for weight loss to the high degree of unreliability in the results, with most evidence suggesting no effects and some sparse evidence to suggest both increases and decreases.

It may be effective for morbidly obese and sedentary individuals but even then, results are still unreliable and often ineffective.

We believe more needs to be done to promote the disuse of such products that can cause severe side-effects and/or zero effect on your fat loss. We advise you to save your money and ask us or check out www.authoritynutrition.com and/or www.examine.com as two credible sources of evidence based reviews for such supplements.

Food and Emotions

Food is often linked with our emotions. Whether we’re stressed and need a “pick me up” or whether we’re happy and celebrating with “a few drinks” we’ve been conditioned to eat and drink based on how we’re feeling.

The Relationship Between Food and Emotions

Take a quick look back on your last three days of your food. Do you notice any trends at all?

Maybe you eat at a similar time each day. Maybe you eat similar foods for lunch every day. Search out and try to find an anomaly. Look for something that is not typical for you to eat, either in food choice or quantity.

Hopefully the last three days are still current enough in your mind but really think hard back to that outlier meal and try to remember what was going on at that point in your day.

Were you stressed out about something at work?

Did you just receive some bad news?

Were you feeling anxious about your finances?

Did you just have a fight with your significant other?

There can be a major link between emotions and your food choices. This is something to try to be very aware of and an act that you can train yourself to control.

Emotional Eating

We tend to turn to food for comfort, stress relief or even a reward. However, emotional eating never actually fixes our emotional problems. Most of the time we feel worse afterward.

Here are seven quick questions to determine if you are an emotional eater:

If you answered YES to at least three of these questions, you might be stuck in an unhealthy emotional eating cycle. The best thing to do is recognise it and use your food journal as a way to break this habit.

By requiring yourself to write down your choices, you can help recognise whether you are actually experiencing emotional hunger or physical hunger.

Try to recognize your emotional triggers and keep track of them in your food journal. This will make it even easier when looking back to see if there are common patterns going on.

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